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Green-up your style-up the next time you’re in the market for a couch. You’ll please your vegan friends, too, with these animal- and earth-friendly seaters.

Find it! Eco-friendly upholstered couches

What's new in natural, eco-friendly upholstery? Try organic cotton, hemp, or wool fabrics that are free of convenience features (wrinkle- and stain-resistant treatments), natural latex rubber and organic cotton batting, and down- and feather-alternatives.

Before you buy

Trade-offs are somewhat common when purchasing green. While buying what can be considered “vegan” upholstery is certainly an eco-fashion statement, man-made imitation animal products are usually made of polyester and acrylic fibers—synthetic, frequently petroleum-based materials that generate significant amounts of factory pollution.[1] So before purchasing that couch made of faux leather, consider both the benefits and disadvantages of your action. See Drawbacks: Pleather for more detailed information.

Choosing eco-friendly upholstery helps you go green because…

• Opting out of animal-derived materials means saving large amounts of land, water, and food, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and use of hazardous chemicals.
• Raising animals for wool, down, or leather can be cruel and inhumane.

Purchasing a couch made with leather, wool, or down may seem like a natural, eco-friendly choice, but there are severe eco-consequences to choosing these textile options. For instance, gaseous and toxic emissions linked to these materials pollute everything from air to water to soil. And the practice of raising animals for these materials can inflict cruelty and hardship on them.

Leather

Perhaps not-so-natural, leather used in any application—couches included—has many eco-drawbacks. Although desired by many, leather—the byproduct of animal skins—is ecologically harmful. For one, raising livestock for meat and leather production requires a great deal of feed, land, water, and fossil fuels. Factory farms generate 130 times the amount of excrement as the entire human population; the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has noted that livestock pollution is the most damaging threat to American waterways.[2]

The process used to tan leather has long been noxious and polluting. Toxins from tanneries includes mineral salts, such as aluminum, iron, and zirconium, as well as formaldehyde and coal-tar derivatives. Certain oils and dyes used in the tanning process are cyanide-based. Similar to the rest of the world, more than 95 percent of American-made leather is chrome-tanned. The production of chrome-tanned leather contributes waste to the environment, including chromium, which is classified as a hazardous material by the EPA.[3] Chromium released from tanneries can contaminate drinking water and is dangerous to ecosystems as well as humans.[4] Tanneries also produce other pollutants, including protein, salt, hair, lime sludge, sulfides, and acids.[3]

Wool

Proponents of wool—both conventional and organic—believe it's an inherently sustainable fiber given that the sheep it comes from are simply shorn, not killed. Many individuals and organizations, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), take issue with how wool-producing sheep are treated—even those subject to a pesticide-free, environmentally sound production process. A particular act of sheep mutilation that has caught the attention of animal rights supporters is the “mulesing” of Australian Merino sheep. Merinos are bred to have wrinkly skin that, in turn, results in higher yields of wool. These characteristic wrinkles attract flies that lay eggs in the folds of skin, resulting in fatal maggot infestations. To prevent this, ranchers perform mulesing—the sheep are restrained without painkillers and chunks of flesh are removed from the area around the tail, resulting in smooth skin that discourages fly egg-laying.[5]

Mutilation and organic certification aside, another environmental danger of the wool industry is enteric fermentation—or livestock belching and flatulence—a major contributor to global climate change. In New Zealand, for example, 90 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions (methane, in particular) result from enteric fermentation, primarily from sheep.[6]

Down and feathers

Down is a popular fill material for cushioned furniture. It is the insulating layer of fine feathers found under the outer feathers of ducks and geese. The down and feathers are collected at meat processing plants from animals that are raised commercially. It is not possible, however, to know if these animals were raised organically.[7] While the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that feathers and down are removed from geese and ducks after they are killed for meat,[8] reports of live-plucking of these birds persist.[9] Additionally, down and feathers are blamed for allergy symptoms. Yet, studies show that less than 1 percent of the population is allergic to down and feathers.[10] Rather, people are more likely to be allergic to the dust and dirt that can accumulate in bedding over time.

Cover finishes

Many cover fabrics, particularly cotton fabric that has been bleached and/or dyed, contain chlorine bleaching that releases carcinogenic dioxins. Permanent-press and stain- and water-repellent finishes can off-gas formaldehyde into the environment.[11] Cotton covers also have negative environmental effects: cotton is a heavy water user, and is sprayed with more pesticides than any other crop in the world.[12] Due to cotton's natural resistance to dyes, roughly half the chemicals used as dyes or fixers end up as waste in rivers and soil.[13]

Drawbacks: Pleather

Choosing imitation leather may leave you feeling warm and green all over, but pleather poses a range of ecological hazards in its production. Faux leather is made from a soft form of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic, commonly known as vinyl. Manufacturing this material involves toxins such as dioxin, lead, and phthalates, which cause a variety of health problems.[14] Using polyurethane to make imitation leather is slightly preferable to PVC plastic.[15] Some companies have already started to phase out PVC in their products (IKEA, Microsoft, and Nike, among others), but a simple question put to store managers or manufacturers should help you find out the nature of the pleather used.[14]

Glossary

• methane: A greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere from both natural and man-made sources, including landfills, agricultural activities, wastewater treatment, and coal mining. Once introduced into the atmosphere, methane can exist for 9 to 15 years. It’s more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere (global warming) than fellow greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.

External links

• CommonDreams.org - Leather: Dead Skin, Environmental Nightmare
• Cows are Cool
• PETA - Down and Silk: Birds and Insects Exploited for Fabric
• Save the Sheep!
• US Environmental Protection Agency - Methane